The mid-summer blended format Science Café came and went in June, along with a bit of good weather. Now, as we write, restrictions have been lifted so (with scientific fingers crossed) September’s Science Café will be going ahead just like they used to in the “good old days”.
We have the usual great line up of speakers covering “Covid-19 vaccines – access, equality and success”; “Pachyderms, parrots and Polynesian tree snails” and “Why BUY? The science behind consumer behaviour”. Find out all about it on the Science Café page.
As 2021 progresses and things are looking promising we are getting on with planning a full Science Festival week for November, based on the premise that life will be reasonably back to “normal”. Of course we will keep a close watch on developments and be prepared to adapt if necessary but for now we are pushing ahead with a full week of events in Otley Courthouse for our dates of November 15th – 20th.
We already have several excellent speakers planned (details will follow as soon as we can) and, after how popular it was last year, we thought we’d go for another Science Quiz. Saturday’s Science Fair planning is under way, with a number of new ideas being explored to make it better than ever. Watch this space!
But of course you don’t have to wait until then. Unless something disappointing happens we’ll be back in Otley Courthouse on June 17th for our first in person Science Café since March 2020. This time, though, we are also learning from the last year and you’ll be able join by Zoom as an alternative, if you can’t (or don’t wish to) join us there.
We may not have escaped our restrictions yet, but we still have a great Science Café lined up for Thursday March 18th. As we anticipated, it will be on-line only but we have an excellent line up of speakers and tickets are only £5 per household. Full details on the Science Café page or you can go straight to book your ticket from Otley Courthouse here.
Not strictly part of the Science Festival, but absolutely an Otley Science Bonus!
Join Dr. Marty Jopson, the One Show science bloke from the telly, for a week full of spectacular live science delivered direct to your home. During each weekday of the February half-term Marty will show off a different selection of fascinating demonstrations from high voltage physics to viruses under a microscope. The shows are aimed at 8 to 14 year olds, but may appeal to younger or older participants.
Starting on Monday 15th February, each day’s session will begin at 10am. The shows will last 45mins and will be followed by 15mins Q&A, where you can get your questions in!
The topics will cover Taming Electricity, Stunt Science, Garden Monsters, Static Magic and Invisible World.
A ticket for the whole week is £40 + booking fee (covering all 5 days of shows). Tickets for individual shows are £10 + booking fee.
Like so much this year the 2020 Science Festival was different, but we were pleased that we were able to go ahead with a full schedule of on-line events. We really appreciate the support of all our presenters who worked with us to enable this to happen. Some were well practiced in on line presenting and for others it was a first, but every session went out as planned and the power of the internet meant that we reached much further afield than ever before.
Thanks also to our audience, wherever you were, for joining us and making the event a success and extra thanks to those who were able to add a donation to Otley Courthouse, without which none of this would happen. This has been a massively challenging time for all live performance locations and every donation has helped us towards still being here next year.
Otley Science Festival 2020 on-line: Marty Jopson performing our opening show “Zap” from his own home.
Writing this post on 27th December, the new year is just around the corner and we have already begun planning. The dates for Otley Science Festival 2021 have been selected as 15th – 20th November and additionally we are planning to hold Science Cafés on March 18th, June 17th and 16th September. We have already made the decision that the March Science Café will once again be on-line only but we are, of course, hoping that by June we will be able to be back to tables in the Courthouse for that Café.
We look forward to you joining us at as many of our events as possible!
With the news of a national lockdown coming into place on 5th November we are moving the Science Festival to be a wholly on-line event.
Fortunately we were already planning to stream all our events (with the obvious exception of Saturday’s films) so these will continue as scheduled but without any audience in the Courthouse. The films will, regrettably, be cancelled.
So, if you have not done so already, check out the schedule and join us for as many events as you can.
There is no charge for joining any event on-line, but it is necessary to book in order to receive the joining instructions. Booking will close 90 minutes before the start time.
If you have already booked to attend an event in person you will be provided details for the streamed event and your ticket cost will be refunded.
We hope this provides the information you need to be able to plan to join us with confidence. Looking forward to seeing you, if only digitally.
Otley Science Festival 2020 runs from November 9th – 14th with a mix of “blended” and on-line only events running from Otley Courthouse, plus a Science Film Day on Saturday 14th, instead of the usual Science Fair.
There will be a charge for attending in person in the Courthouse. For on-line participation in any events there will be no charge, but it will be necessary to book to join.
We have worked to put together a full set of Covid friendly events which will run, as scheduled, over the week of November 9th – 14th.
There will be some on-line only events and some “blended” with a mixed live and on-line audience (subject to regulations still allowing this) plus a Science Film Day on Saturday 14th, instead of the usual Science Fair.
You can find all the details on the Festival 2020 page, which will be updated as further information is available and tickets go on sale.
So, we didn’t manage to go ahead with the June Science Café as we had hoped however we have regrouped and have moved ahead with plans for both the September 17th Science Café and the November Science Festival week.
Both will necessarily be different this year, but we want Otley Science Festival 2020 to happen and look forward to returning to a more familiar form in 2021.
The September Science Café is now in hand, as an on-line only event, but also a test of our capabilities to deliver a blended event in November. We have two great speakers for you to enjoy. Check out the details on the Science Café page.
For the Festival week we are building our plans and hope to soon announce as full a week of activities as we can.
